Unusual encounters in the wilderness

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I've got to say, my hunt for a "reasonable explanation" is in overdrive here, but I can't think of one for that. I'm not saying there isn't one, there might be, but that kind of story really makes me wonder.

I've heard plenty of ghost/spirit stories (heard a fresh one just last night about an event that happened during the week) the vast majority of which can be pinned down to something completely mundane (that one was sleep paralysis) some of them, however, really give me cause to chuckle and think, for a moment... "maybe".

I do believe in the supernatural, but not in a way that allows just about anything to happen and not in a way to accept everything wierd as other-worldly.
 

traderran

Settler
May 6, 2007
571
0
73
TEXAS USA
The old house is still there. I Got a look while I was flying to Baton Rouge about 3 weeks ago. And no I don't wont to go back even at this late date
 
Its quite interesting reading all these stories.

I havent spent a night out on my own yet but I guess my imagination will run wild.

I have a story, but not quite a ghost story.
A few years ago me and my mate were camping away up in the Ben Alder area and we had got off to sleep no problem. Next thing I know I am woken up at 4am by my mate saying that theres someone prowling around the tent. Obviously at this point we were kinda scared and the place that we were in there was no where to run as the nearest road was about 8-10miles away. We stick our heads out for a look and couldn't see anything so we went back to our sleeping bags and a little while later we heard the noise again this time my mate chucked out a glow stick in the direction we heard the noise from and hid in our bags til light. In the morning we had a look around and couldn't find anything so we just put it down to a deer or other animal passing the tent.

Its easy how the imagination can play tricks on your mind.

Keep em coming. :)
 
I had a similar enoucounter...

...camping above Coniston near where the Walna Scar Road passes Brown Pike.
I heard a person walking right next to the tent at about 2am and instantly sat up and got out of my sleeping bag in case of trouble - it's odd that when outdoors I don't fear anything wild or supernatural, only people who might have less than friendly intentions.

However, it didn't take long before I realised it wasn't an axe murderer, but a close encounter of the OVINE kind!
A sheep was grazing just a couple of feet from my head, the footsteps I heard were the sound of it biting the grass - it was the subsequent (very quiet) chewing that made me realise what it really was.

I slept very well despite the fright. :p
 
Oct 6, 2008
495
0
Cheshire
Not bushy related but relevant I think and all absolute unembellished truth...

Back in my student days I spent my final year living with my mates in The Old Friary, Lanbaddarn, just outside Aberystwyth. During the Christmas break I spent a couple of weeks there by myself. During this time I would routinely see objects moving around apparently of their own volition. I was never scared by this, in fact I would say something along the lines of "I'm impressed."

When the lads came back I told them and they were initially dismissive, but bit by bit they would start to see stuff move too. But typically, it was always when there was just one of us to see it.

Until....

One evening a bunch of girlies came round to check the place out as they were considering moving in the next year. We were all sat in the kitchen ( because it was far and away the warmest bit) watching a protable tv with one of those ariels that sit on the top. The girls asked what the place was like and we told them truthfully that the rent was low, it was a bit far from town and blummen chilly in winter.....and the ghost moved stuff.

One of the lads got a bit miffed and shouted "There's no Ghost"

And the TV ariel 5 or 6 feet from the nearest person jumped off the tv and into the sink.

The girls literally ran out and afterwards probably thought it was a prank.

From then on stuff started moving round in front of groups of us. Very strange but never really scary. I had similar stuff when I was doing my A levels. Ghost ? Some wierd localised magnetic field? Mass (as in more than one person) delusion? Don't know.

Its a wierd world and science is yet to answer a lot of questions.
 

traderran

Settler
May 6, 2007
571
0
73
TEXAS USA
Not bushy related but relevant I think and all absolute unembellished truth...

Back in my student days I spent my final year living with my mates in The Old Friary, Lanbaddarn, just outside Aberystwyth. During the Christmas break I spent a couple of weeks there by myself. During this time I would routinely see objects moving around apparently of their own volition. I was never scared by this, in fact I would say something along the lines of "I'm impressed."

When the lads came back I told them and they were initially dismissive, but bit by bit they would start to see stuff move too. But typically, it was always when there was just one of us to see it.

Until....

One evening a bunch of girlies came round to check the place out as they were considering moving in the next year. We were all sat in the kitchen ( because it was far and away the warmest bit) watching a protable tv with one of those ariels that sit on the top. The girls asked what the place was like and we told them truthfully that the rent was low, it was a bit far from town and blummen chilly in winter.....and the ghost moved stuff.

One of the lads got a bit miffed and shouted "There's no Ghost"

And the TV ariel 5 or 6 feet from the nearest person jumped off the tv and into the sink.

The girls literally ran out and afterwards probably thought it was a prank.

From then on stuff started moving round in front of groups of us. Very strange but never really scary. I had similar stuff when I was doing my A levels. Ghost ? Some wierd localised magnetic field? Mass (as in more than one person) delusion? Don't know.

Its a wierd world and science is yet to answer a lot of questions.

Great story Now lets see some more. We have a good thing going hear
 

WhichDoctor

Nomad
Aug 12, 2006
384
1
Shropshire
This is nether here nor there but I just had a little chuckle to myself when Walks with dogs mentioned Mass Delusion in relation to things moving around. I had a mental image of objects with mass becoming deluded into thinking they could move by themselves :lmao: .

But then, it's as good a theory as any, right? :p
 

traderran

Settler
May 6, 2007
571
0
73
TEXAS USA
This is nether here nor there but I just had a little chuckle to myself when Walks with dogs mentioned Mass Delusion in relation to things moving around. I had a mental image of objects with mass becoming deluded into thinking they could move by themselves :lmao: .

But then, it's as good a theory as any, right? :p

Good one
now lets see some more posts:D
 

pete79

Forager
Jan 21, 2009
116
9
In a swamp
A few years back (in my current neck of the woods) a guy I know was paddling his canoe on the sheslay river in Northern BC, Canada. He was happily paddling along, when a gentleman emerged from from the woods on the river bank. He said the guy was heavily bearded, with long hair, raggy clothing and was cradling a rifle. The guy said to him "How did you find me?", to which my friend responded "Err, coincidence I suppose". He said the guy patted his rifle and said "Just remember, I don't go anywhere without my lawyer.", before watching him paddle down the river. My chum went about his business, thinking what a strange gentleman, and went camping..........
until a couple of years later he saw the guy's picture on the front of the local rag, and discovered he'd been talking to a nutjob, who'd isolated himself from society, beleived that the government were spraying mind-altering drugs in the woods and sending people out to find him, and had just shot and killed a german man for straying into his patch, and a mountie who was sent out to apprehend him. I think it was a bit of a bum-twitching revelation for him.
 

JohnL

Forager
Nov 20, 2007
136
0
West Sussex
I have only read the first few pages, but I cannot help feeling some of you have been in the woods on your own for a bit to long.:lmao:
I have never felt or seen anything, but it is easy to imagen things in the dark.
 

bear knights

Need to contact Admin...
Jan 18, 2007
71
0
49
Cornwall
was staying in the pyrenees a few years ago and had made a make shift lean to to sleep under. During the night I was woken by lots of gun fire and shouting (in french) and dogs barking. I didn't know what was going on and so just stayed huddled under my shelter. After a few minutes I suddenly got the fear and had a very real sense that a bear was being chased and hunted. It sounded like the whole commotion was around me and I was partly cra**ing myself and partly filled with rage. I shot out of the shelter not quite knowing what I was going to be confronted by, only to find that there was absolutely nothing there. no people, no dogs, no fireworks...nothing.
i'm certain I wasn't asleep and there couldn't have been enough time for it to be fireworks or anything else that i can think of.

quote by toddy '-if the door creaks open the general response is "Come in!" , well you never know' (no I still don't know how to do direct quotes!):eek:
what if it was a vampire standing at the door?;)
 

East Coaster

Forager
Oct 21, 2008
177
0
Fife/Scotland
Ok then. But not bushcraft related.
I've "seen" ufo's on 4 separate occasions in my life. 3 times on my own and once with a friend. I wont bore you with the details but each time was completely different with different types and numbers of craft involved. Im more than happy to put these down to some sort of illusion/hallucination/whatever and would not put them down to little green men as many would. The mind/consciousness is a fascinating subject that science is only just starting to scratch the surface of.
The one thing that has happened to me that I cannot for the life of me explain was as follows: I phoned up my friend to arrange to go out for a drink and his father answered the phone and explained he was already out and which pub he was at. I thanked him and went out. On getting to the pub I found the atmosphere with my group of friends was somewhat subdued. I was quckly informed that the friend whom I'd phoned Dad had died the previous day. I thought it was a wind up but thankfully I never mentioned the phone call because it was true. He lived alone with his Dad and there was no uncle or anyone else it could have been. I'd known his dad for many years and knew for a fact that that's who I'd spoken to on the phone. It kind of rocked me because Im an athiest at heart and just don't have an explanation for it.
On the subject of ghosts and the like. Well apparently they can create them in the laboratory now. Not sure how, haven't done a search or have any links but it's something to do with sonic frequencies or something like that and reverb in cerain spatial conditions. It can make people feel cold and hairs stand on end or "see" things that aren't there or "feel" a presence and uneasyness, that type of thing.
As far as people being absolutely sure they have witnessed something (including my own example above) think of this. We've probably all been in the situation where we've been speaking with a couple of people and someone points out we said a word or name or something wrong. We argue that we didn't, we are absolutely convinced we didn't say what they said. We are as sure as anything and would bet our life on it, after all "we" said it, so we should know. Only, the other person present confirms that we did indeed say something different. Suppose this only goes to show how easy it is to fool ourselves sometime.
Hope that made some sort of sense:confused:
One other thing. I used to be terrified some evenings when i was awake in bed and felt a presence in the room and be paralysed with fear. I was convinced there was some sort of malevolent source to this until I found out about sleep paralysis. Thank goodness for science:D
There are a lot of anomalies in this wierd and wonderfull world of ours. The human mind is cabable of creating it's own universe within itself. I don't believe in the supernatural, it's just unexplained normality.
Makes a great story though;)
 

JDCP

Member
Nov 2, 2005
19
0
60
South Staffordshire
Haven't got any supernatural recounts (want to believe...But I don't...for now). However, sometimes on a Sunday I meet some friends in a local, we all walk so we can drink & not drive, obviously.

My walk (alone) takes me about 2 miles through mature woodland near the edge of Cannock Chase. For me, a walk through the woods is a nice prelude to a night's lager with good company. I often make the journey in the dark during the winter. Thing is, sometimes just as I come to the woods at the start of my walk, it seems super-still and quiet. Two or three times in the years I've been doing this, I've bottled it and gone and asked SWMBO to drive me over.

Most of the time I just plod on and that's it, it's just now and then the woods don't look so friendly...
 
Nov 29, 2004
7,808
22
Scotland
Not a tale from the wilderness, but something I found quite spooky.

I spent the last years of my fathers life caring for him, he had dementia.

His dementia had a number of effects, one of the oddest was that he would see invisible people and the curious thing was the constancy of these illusions, he would see the same invisible people repeatedly. Occasionally he would see something different, for instance when one night he was convinced that there were several young men outside digging up the garden, however these were the exception.

The most frequent illusion was that of a small boy who would sit beside him and watch television, there was also an old women who wandered the garden who wore "old fashioned clothes", a man who always stood facing the wall in the corner of the room and many others.

He once asked me “these people that I see” “they’re not real are they?” “you can’t see them?”, “no” I replied.

My father smiled and said ”mostly they’re not there“, ”sometimes there are just one or two“, ”but sometimes they’re like a river, flowing all the way up to the sky“.

He said nothing more on the subject.
 

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